Old Centralians ran rampant in the closing stages as they beat Matson 40-17 in the Junior Combination Cup final.

The Saintrbridge side ran in five tries in the final including an incredible solo score from Sam Smith.

Matson lost control of the game and got on the wrong side of the referee, giving away too many penalties.

The score remained close into the final few moments before Alex Cox ran in two tries to secure silverware for Cents.

Old Cents started superbly with a fantastic display of running rugby in the sun at Kingsholm.

Their openside-flanker Craig Ballinger started the play with a lovely offload out of the tackle which created plenty of space out wide for his backs to use. Outside-centre Smith collected the offload and threw a long pass to winger Rob Sullury Cox who race in from 40 metres with nobody in front of him.

In a ding dong affair Matson hit back shortly after as their blindside-flanker Liam Hazeldon drove over the line after Matson's backs had created stretched the Cents defence across the field.

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Ballinger continued his good game by scoring after quarter of an hour. The flanker picked up the ball from the back of the scrum and saw open ground ahead of him as he made his way towards the try line. He dived across the line in front of the posts, the successful conversion made the score 12-7.

Matson found themselves under the pump when prop Kev Ravenhill was sin-binned for a no arms tackle with a quarter of the game gone. However, Old Cents were unable to make the extra man pay during the ten minutes he was off the field.

George Preece in action for Old Cents

Late in the second half Matson took the lead in the game for the first time courtesy of replacement Louis Haddow. A neat lineout move set up the driving maul and Haddow was on hand to touch the ball down in the corner. The conversion gave Matson a 14-12 lead at half-time.

Old Cents hit back quickly in the second period as outside-half Craig Anderson knocked over a penalty from 40 metres out to edge Cents into a one point lead.

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Smith added a try shortly after to extend Old Cents' lead. The outside-centre picked up the ball 40 metres out and beat his man with ease. From then on he pinned his ears back and headed for the corner, diving early he beat the covering full-back to score a memorable individual try.

A scruffy penalty from Farrell Gwilliam closed the gap to 22-17 for Matson. The penalty, hit with a low trajectory, almost grazed the crossbar as it snuck over.

Anderson cancelled out the Matson penalty with a drop-goal of his own. With the Cents attack looking static the outside-half took a snap drop kick and extended his sides lead.

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He added a penalty shortly after to extend the lead to 28-17 with just ten minutes remaining.

It was left to Cox to deliver the knockout blow as he scored two tries in two minutes. After Smith broke out of his own 22 and ran 50 metres downfield Matson's defence was scrambling. Quick hands got the ball wide and into the hands of Cox who crossed for his first of the game.

From the kick-off he scored his second try. The ball was spread wide and into the hands of Cox who beat the first defender with a stop-start before cutting his way infield, past the full-back to score under the posts. The conversion from Anderson made the score 40-17 to Cents and a little harsh on Matson.